Reckoning
by Cotez
Summary: Reckoning is the story of the life of a jedi during the times of the yuuzhan vong war, becoming a jedi and facing the dark side of the force are many obstacles he will have to face. Disclaimer: I must give credit to the great George Lucas
1. Chapter I

"The Vong! They're..." a man yelled as a thud bug hit him in the back. A Man and a Woman were fleeing the chaos,  
carrying with them what goods they could, the woman had a bundle clutched to her chest, they ran towards to jungle  
hopeing that it would provide their salvation. However a yuuzhan vong warrior cut them off.

"You humans cannot escape, you're death is inevitable" the warriors said as the pair turned around hopeing to flee  
in another direction only to be met with the face of a second and third yuuzhan vong.  
"You will not take us alive" The man said as he dropped his bag and ignited his lightsaber, the yuuzhan vong laughed  
no dought expecting a good fight from a jedi.  
"HaHaHa, i knew you were _jeedai_ the moment is saw you"

He uncurled his amphistaff from around his arm and began to advance, the man ran up and began battering away at the vongs defences, he attacked and parried, attacked andparried over and over again until a weakness appeared in the defence of the yuuzhan vong warrior, capitilising on this the man spun forward severed the vong's leg at the knee then beheaded him. The other warriors looked on as the vongfell to the ground, they let out a roar and charged at the man who was put on the defensive, the woman fearful began to back away until she hit something solid, she turned around and it was another warrior, running towards to forest as the man was fighting, the warrior was chasing after her and he pulled out a thud bug and threw it. Instinctivly she rolled to the ground and placed the bundle near a tree trunk, then fliped up and pulled out her own lighsaber and threw it at the warrior, she attacked fast enough for the warrior to be caught of guard and the lightsaber impaled the warrior through the head. She called back the saber, and she turned over to the other man.

"We can't fight them forever!" she yelled as she deflected a thud bug aimed at her head.

"We must keep fighting...!" his eyes flew open as he saw two vong warriors sneaking up on the woman, she turned around and deflected one amphistaff, but he knew it was over, she was not a warrior but a healer. The second amphistaff went through her stomach and severed her spine, she fell to the ground paralyzed. The vong warrior stepped over her to deliver the final blow.

"I love...you" she said as the amphistaff went threw her chest.

"I love you too" he said as he turned to the vong warriors he was fighting, he lowered his weapon, his reason for living had been taken away, so he would die this day, he would die knowing that his vengeance had been dealt. The vong thinking that he had given up lowered his weapon and approached mockingly, that was when his lighsaber flew out and slit his throat in the blink of an eye, he turned around and ran towards the womans body, over to where the final vong stood. The vong pulled his amphistaff out of her corpse and charged at him they fought for a split second until the man's lightsaber peirced his eye socket and went through the vongs head.

He crouched down next to her body and wept, he didn't realise that more vong had arrived while he was fighting, he did not see the amphistaff decend on his neck...

All the while the bundle riggled where it was, a cry echoed around the area, eminating from the bundle, alerting the vong, the leader stepped over the head of the man and walked over, he picked up the bundle and smiled.

"Hmmm a _jeedai _child, muahahahahah" he laughed, then his laugh subsided as he looked at the baby, a strange light glow began to surround it, the leader stared on as the light expanded suddenly and knocked all the vong flying away, the bundle fell to the floor unharmed and the baby began crying. Seeing the whole fight, a woman stepped out from behind a tree, with a blaster held high and pointed towards the vong, she came forward and picked up the bundle and marveled at the baby, so much power in somone so young. She instinctivly knew that the baby must be protected at all costs. So she turned away and ran into the forest, to hide, and one day help would come.


	2. Chapter II

Cotez entered a clearing that smelt of the sound of battle, his green cloak swirling around him. He was sixteen years old, with purple eyes, and was athleticly built. He saw wounded men lying all over the place, and vong. His eyes slowly surveyed the surrounding clearing, immediantly he noticed a wounded vong rising to his feet, he ran over and grabbed a peice of rubble and hurled it at the vong. The rubble collided with the vongs head with a crunching sound, the vong fell to the ground.

"Help me!" a man said, Cotez ran over to a wounded soldier, upon closer enspection he had an arm missing and a wound in his chest that would be the end of him if it wasn't tended to.  
"Calm down, i am going to help, be still and i will carry you", Cotez knelt lower and jestured for the man to roll over onto his back, he heaved with all his might and lifted himself and the man on his back into the air and started running towards his house. He ran for what seemed forever looking left and right fearing the vong return, the man on his back was moaning and crying about the wound on his chest.

Cotez heard a slight ristle in the leaves, he stopped. _Wait a sec, there is no wind today? _he heard another rustle and then another, he turned around and ducked just as a thud bug flew past and imbeded itself into a tree, he heard the familiar sound of more thud bugs flew past. He ran as fast as he could but then one thudbug cliped him on the side of the arm and he dropped the man, another thud bug came hurtling towards him, no not him the falling soldier, he pushed the soldier out of the way and then dived to the ground and rolled. He came up near where the soldier fell, grabed him and kept running, it wasn't long before he heard the heavy footsteps of vong chasing him, _Damn it! _He thought. He looked around for a place to hide until he saw a small area of lush bushes he could hide in. Rushing over carrying the wounded man, he dived under just before the vong entered the area, Cotez, lying down on his stomach and looking out from under the bush could see them searching for him. His heart beat faster until he heard a gutteral yell from further behind the vong, they all turned around, looked at each other then ran to where the noise came from. Cotez was releived beyond compare, he was about to get up when he realised that they could come back at any time, so he remained on the ground and began to wait.

Cotez woke up sharply as he heard whining from beside him, he turned over and saw that the soldier was awake and trying to keep quite but the pain was unbearable.  
"It's ok, i will take you to someone that can help you" Cotez said as he knelt over the soldier to check his wound, he saw the soldiers are shoot out and grab his own arm.  
"Don't help me, save yourself, help is coming" The soldier said then coughed, Cotez began thinking _What does that mean?  
"_What do you mean?" Cotez asked  
"I mean Cough the alliance is here to recapture this planet, my people will look for me.." the soldiers eyelids fell closed as he moaned and arched his back.  
"Keep still, is there a base then, where you're people are set up, if i can get there then you will be helped" Cotez pleaded.  
"Yes, nearby, there is a base we set up in the farming mill, well what's left of it anyways" he let out another cough as cotez pondered what he had said.  
"Ok then, lets go, can you walk or do you need to be carried again?"  
"I don't think i can walk, the pain is terrible" The soldier said as he coughed again.  
"Ok then, what's you're name by the way?" Cotez asked.  
"My name is Commander Magnus Marius" the soldier replied as he closed his eyes and climbed onto Cotez's back. They walked for a long time, detouring around the obvious routes to the farmlands, cotez knew all these areas well...

---------

**_"I Don't Wan't You To Go Outside Cotez, It Is Dangerous, The Vong Could Find You!" Mother Yelled._**

**_' "Yes Mother.." I ran to my room and spend my time there trying to figure out something to do, i had been couped up here all my life, it probably was for a good cause, the vong were reckless, they killed all people who didn't do what they wanted, they thought of it as no loss, they though of us all as infidels. I sat there for ages until i decided that i still wanted to explore around outside, i tricked mum into thinking that i was going to go to sleep early and ended up climing out the window, the house was a two story building with minimal damage, after this planet copitulated to the invading vong, my mother was allowed to live here with me, the vong 'let' us live they said, and if we got in their way we wold be killed. I Trevelled around and explored the surrounding area of the house. After a couple of days of doing this i started to go further afeild, eventually i found my way to the border of one of the vong settlements on the planet, i was captured and i was to be 'punished', but i managed to escpae with a few cuts a bruises. I arrived home, and guess what Mum was there, she was furious and when she found out that i was captured, she grounded me for the rest of my life, although she came around eventually, and started letting me go out more and more as i got older, it has been 8 years since then, i'm 16 now, hopefully the vong will get defeated by this new 'alliance' attacking the planet.'_**

**----------**

"Cotez?" The soldier asked, cotez noticed that he had stopped, he waved to assure the soldier that he was still with it and continued the treck towards the farmlands. It wasn't long however before he reached a dense area of bush that opened up to the farmlands, what was left of them anyways, rubble was strewn across the country side, the farmlands were overgrown and the few buildings that were on the farmland area were smashed to peices like a massive explosion had riped them apart. Only weeds grew here now. He straightend as much as he could with the soldier on his back.  
"So where now?"  
"We have to head over to the area where all the old machinery is stored, there is a secret tunnel made using vong technology, that tunnel leads to our base of operations on this planet." Cotez nodded in reply and set of in the direction of machinery storage.

----------

A vong stood on a small precipice, stretching his arm after hte battle he had just been involved in, the humans attacked the planet, but the vong were prepared, they ambushed a patrol of the humans, defeating them easily. He had killed several humans, and suffered a wound to his arm, his training taught him to ignore the pain, a shaper would hopefully be allowed to see him for this victory. He continued to stare of into the distance when he heard a call behind him.

"Verak?" A young vong said.  
"Yes?" Verak replied, turning from the edge of the precipice, he looked at the young vong with a cold sharp stare, a stare that he would use to unnerve even the most hardened warriors.  
"What do you want!" Verak asked, he continued to stare at the vong with his cold stare, he could see the vong begin to squirm, he grinned '_good' _he thought.  
"SIR!" the vong said as he saw the grin on Verak's face, he bowed and presented Verak with a package, cover in vong organic material, he stroked the spines on the side to open it, it was a recording. He looked around and saw that the vong were busily at work preparing the camp for an attack by the humans, he walked over to the precipice and stroked the recording, instantly an image appeared in mid air above the recorder and it began talking

----------

_"Verak, this is Comerak, as you may alrdy know the humans have attacked you're planet, i want you to make sure that they do not gain a foothold, my forces in space are keeping their fleet at bay for the moment but if anything should happen i want you to be able to defeat them if they land more troops. I have also go word that they have set up a small post in an area that the humans calle the 'Machinery Storage' no dought foul mechanics will be there, i want you to head to this area and destroy any humans you find, and their pitiful machiens, Comerack out!"_

----------

Verak looked out at the horizon, his brother, he was always bossing him around, despite the fact that they were family, he knew that one day he would cherish the oppurtunity to show up his brother, he knew that if he won this battle, and his brother lost he would be elevated to teh rank of commander and his brother would kneel at his knees and ask for forgivness. But for the time being he would follow orders and obey his brother.

"Vamilionus!" Verak yelled, it echoed around the camp, and he saw a strongly built vong aproach him out of the corner of his eye, the vong knelt at his feet."Yes, Verak?" the vong replied.  
"I want you to gather you're best men, we will eliminate the threat of the humans of this planet once and for all" Verak signalled for Vamilionus to leave his presence. Today would be the day where he would be honored for defeating so many humans, he would be honored for defending htis planet, he would be honored with his brother kneeling at his feet, his life in his hands. He laughed histerically, he knew that this would be his time.


	3. Chapter III

Cotez imerged into a clearing that signaled the start of the perimeter for the Machinery Storage, he walked closer wary of any ambush. He heard a rustle in the leaves and then suddenly he was surrounded by men holding blasters at the ready."Peace, i mean no harm!" Cotez said as he began to back away, the soldier on his back stired, Cotez spared a glance at the soldier.  
"Who are you!" One of them yelled.  
"I bought this wounded soldier here, my names is Cotez" Cotez replied.  
The man gestured to another man who appeared to be a big oaf in Cotez's opinion, none the less, the big man walked over and grabed the soldier of Cotez's back.  
"Ahhh, It's Commander Magnus" He gasped.  
"He's Wounded, Get him to the medvac asap!" He yelled as he turned to cotez.  
"Where did you find him!" he grabed Cotez with his spare arm and lifted him by his coat of the ground.  
"Sarin, let him go!" came a voice from behind Cotez. The man called Sarin turned around and looked in the direction voice, then dropped Cotez on the ground and ran away carrying the soldier.

"I am so sorry for Sarin's behaviour, you see he is Magnus's brother" the man said, he was an older man, far older than any of the men in the ring around Cotez, he was dressed in a red flight suit and had two blasters on either side of his hip. He was prepared for battle, and his body structure said that he would be a good match for any warrior.  
"That's ok" Cotez replied.  
"Are you a local?" the man asked.  
"Yes" Cotez replied. The man simply nodded and smiled as he gestured for the ring of men to leave, he then walked past cotez to the wall of the out-building of the machinery storage area, he knocked on the door three times, then whistled. The door opened and he turned around.  
"My name is Warren, come with me" he gestured with his hand, revealing it to be in a black glove with the symbol of the rebel alliance on it. Cotez followed, he wanted to know what was going on, mostly it was the overpowering thought that someone was coming to defeat the vong that made him follow Warren.

----------

"FASTER!" Verak yelled, he was walking back and forth infront of a line of assembled warriors, they were taking longer than he thought they would. "THE LAST PERSON HERE WILL BE SACRIFICED!" he continued to yell as the last bung of straglers fell into place at the back, he had a total of 500 vong here, this would be enought to defeat the pathetic infidels he though.

_Secretly he had reservations of capturing the leader, he wanted to capture the leader so he could display his head to his brothers superiors, this would elevate him to the rank of commander, on equal par with his brother, he would then slay his brother in personal combat.  
_  
"Sir!" his warriors yelled in unison. he gestured to the shaper beside him, 'a gift by his superiors for a good ambush', to leave. He waved over his leutenant, and gestured to the back thirty warriors, his leutenant bowed and walked over and stabed each of the thirty in the back with his amphistaff, none of them even flinched as the amphistaff sliced into their spine.  
"Good" Verak said.  
"Now we will crush the infidels, we will destroy their machines, we will troumph!" he shook his fist in the air, and he was awnsered with a bellow of his name.

"VERAK! VERAK! VERAK!" they bellowed, he grinned. This day, would be his, the gods would shower him with honor.

----------

"Cotez, How long have you lived here?" Warren asked as they walked down the long tunnel."All my life..ahh sir" Cotez replied."Please call me Warren, i don't like titles much, they make me chafe" Warren said. "So, you have been under vong supression all you're life, how old are you?"  
"I am 16 years old" Cotez replied, Warren shook his head.  
"_tut_, _tut_, must have been a hard life, living under the vong, you must have just caught them as they began their war" Warren said. Cotez simply nodded and remained silent.

_ Warren shared a little about himsef on the walk, He was a veteran warrior, he was 56 years old, he had been fighting for 40 of them, he had commanded many ground assaults during his carer with the empire, he greatly regreted those battles, he felt that the empire was not the right kind of government, so in one battle he orchestrated the defeat of his attack force, then went and joined the rebel alliance, he helped the rebel alliance to many great victories, then he retired. It was a short lived retirement, he was called back into service during the thrawn crisis, eventually he was allowed to retire after that battle, but he decided that his life was best served doing battle with his enemies, helping his allies and fighting till his last breath. He was the Leutenant-General of a battle group at the start of the war, he lost 90 percent of his forces in the first couple of engagements, he lost many good men on those days._

_He retreaded to Kuat to replenish his forces and bolster their defences, he was ordered to stay there as part of the defence force, so he did. It was a while until his standing orders changed, he found out that Coruscant had been taken by the vong, he was ordered to hasten to Mon Calamari to defend it at all costs. There he stayed for two years, then he was sent with an attack force to recapture key planets on an attack route through to some vong strongholds, one year after his assignment he came to this world, he had been fighting here for one month, secretly._

Finaly Cotez could see light up ahead, he looked over at Warren.  
"Are we nearly there?" Cotez asked.  
"Yes we are nearly there, on the otherside of the entrance up there is our encampment, it is hidden in the side of a mountain to avoid detection by vong forces, and it has gun emplacements so that it can be defended from any areial assault should one ever occur."  
Warren looked on as they entered the camp, it was no much of a camp, more of an entire settlement, it had solid duracrete buildings all over the place, semingly placed to defend from any area should an attack come, then there was the outdoor barracks which saw many men training outside, shooting at targets, Cotez looked up at the sky, at a falling rock from the side of the cliff above, it fell then it rebonded of a semingly invidible barrier, sending a rippled across the surface, then sliding down the side and falling to the ground.

"What was that?" Cotez asked in awe. "That was our defence shield, i was not sure it was completed yet" Warren awnsered.  
As they walked along many people saluted Warren, it was an amazing sight, he did not command their respect, he earned their respect, all these men and women seemed happy to serve a man like Warren.  
"Now Cotez, i am going to take you to the temporary accomidation we have set up for the resistance members we have encountered on this planet." Warren said and gestured to a tall rectangel shaped building, with about 6 floors and 20 windows per floor as far as Cotez could see. As they walked cotez noted a peculiar man dressed in a dark brown cloak, and white tunic walk past him, the man turned and looked at him, his eyes breifly went over cotez, then returned to looking infront of himself.

"Who was that?" Cotez asked as he watched the figure walk towards the central building.  
"That was a Jedi, Camahl Sarat, he is a Marran from the planet Marris, he is here to help us with our victory"  
"Jedi?" Cotez asked, he had heard the term used before, but didn't really know what they where.  
"Have you never heard of the jedi?" Warren asked. Cotez shook his head.  
"Well, the jedi are beings that can use a mystical energy called the force, they can use it in many amazing ways..." Cotez listened to all that Warren had to say, in the time it took for the conversation, they had reached the entrance to the accomidation. Warren gestured for Cotez to enter, he then walked over to the reception area, well what looked like one. He hit the bell and a woman ran out.  
"Mum?" Cotez said as he saw who it was, a look of shock covered his mothers face.


	4. Chapter IV

"Cotez!" his mother stood there stunned, Warren simply smiled. "I see you two already know each other, Mavis" Warren said, he clapped Cotez on the shoulder and walked out of the building.  
"What are you doing here?" Mavis asked.  
"I found a wounded soldier, i helped him, what are you doing here?" Cotez asked, he knew why she was here even before she awnsered, he knew she had been helping the alliance.  
"I have been part of a resistance movement intent on removing the vong from this planet, we got in contact with the alliance and they decided to make this planet one of the planets that would be liberated."  
"You could've told me" Cotez said. "I can help"  
"No, you can't help, you're only a teenager, you have your whole life to live, seeing war and battle are things you should never see, let alone when your young" Mavis replied.  
"Well, i wanna help, i'm staying" Cotez said.  
"I can't stop you, but i do hope you look after yourself" She replied. Cotez nodded, Warren returned and put his arm around Cotez's shoulders.  
"All sorted?" he asked. Looking around the room he received a nod from Cotez and a nod from Mavis.  
"Good then, i assume then that you wish to join the resistance Cotez?" Warren asked, he looked at Cotez, then grinned and shoved him towards the open door.  
"Mavis be a dear and get a room ready for Cotez, i wanna show him around first" Warren waved and followed Cotez out through the door. Mavis stood there and smiled, turned around and went up the stairs.

----------

Verak stood overlooking the planet from his viewing platform inside his personal chambers, he looked out towards to distance, thinking when his leutenant burst in."Sir!" he said, kneeling to verak."What is it veramus?" Verak said, his new cloak of command swirling around his feet.  
"We have news, the human occupation force has been sighted, they seem to be preparing for an assault" Veramus replied.  
"Do they know of our presence?" Verak asked, anger filling his eyes.  
"No, mylord i made careful preperations for the scouting party, they seem to be preparing for an assault of their own, from an outpost just south of the farmlands, and we believe we have found the location of their main base" Veramus bowed deeply to Verak hoping that he would spare his life.  
"Very well, you are my most trusted leutenant, if i am to rise in power, you most certainly will be coming with me" Verak said, before Veramus could reply Verk gestured for him to leave.

_This day will be the last day that those humans breathe free air, i will rench every last secret from thier pathetic minds i will make sure that any more resistance on their part will be dealt with, all human no.. all infidels in the galaxy shall be purged, and at the head of this purging would be him, right hand man to the great Shimrra Jamaane. Verak..., Huh, VERAK!_

"VERAK!" Came a yell from the corner of Verak's personal chamber, Verak opened his eyes, his intense thinking had numbed his senses, he looked over to teh source of the noise and found a villip with the face of his frowning brother, Verak walked over at a slow pace, purposly angering his brother.  
"Yes Brother?" Cerak asked.  
"How is the battle on the planet going, i have managed to force the infidel fleet to flee out of system but my sources say that they have many more ships to attack with, my forces would have been surverely outnumbered if they had attacked, it seems a trap to me."  
"Of course, the battle is going well, we are preparing to move into position to ambush an infidel outpost, once that is done we will move into attack their main base, which my leutenant tells me we have discovered." Verak replied.  
"Very well then, i will keep their forces at bay, you must defeat the forces on the planet, then all you're veterans are to immediantly join with the space fleet to repel any attack understood?"  
"Yes Sire" Verak said in a mocking tone, it was good that his brother didn't detect it. He grinned to himself then walked out to the parade grounds.  
"Form Up!" He yelled. Immediantly hundreds of vong run up into formed ranks interms of veterancy, he walked to the front where his leutenant was and touched him on the shoulder, a sign of respect.  
"I want you to personally lead the attack on the outpost, take it for me and the vong, then report to me and we will take their main stronghold, we will defeat them, for yun-yuuzhan" Verak said then saluted.  
"You will all be sent into battl eon many fronts this many days, i expect you to show you'r skill...cheers...i expect you to show the enemy that you are the finest...cheers...i expect you to show the enemy that you are trained by me...cheers...i expect you to make them grovel at you're feet, i expect you to win." With those words, the vong erupted into cheers, they all saluted, Verak saluted back then waved for them to take up positions, he would win this day, to show his brother.

----------

"Ahh Cotez, i know ow you feel, my father denied my the knowledge that he was in a resistance group against the empire, although that situation turned out differently" Warren said a puzzled look on his face.  
"What happened?" Cotez asked.  
"Well, i had to defeat him in combat, i was a member of the empire at the time, i had to obey orders, i didn't even know that i had deafeated my fathers flagship until i left the empire to join the rebellion, i knew that was how my father would have wanted to go..." Warren looked at cotez, smiled. "Enough about me, you're mother is a good woman, i have known her for 3 months, in that time, she has been a valuable asset, she has never stopped worrying that you would be pulled into this conflict." Warren looked over at the barracks and gestured for cotez to head in that direction. Cotez with his head hung low, walked to the barracks.

----------

Upon entering the barracks, cotez looked on as the marvels that were before him. The baracks was a great hall where many people practiced hand to hand combat and shooting with a different variety of weapons. Cotez walked forward and Warren grabed cotez by the arm and held him back.

"What type of weapons do you like Cotez?" Warren asked.

"Um i have never really used many weapons in my life" Cotez replied.

"Hmm, then you might want to use this, Blaster here." He picked up a blaster and handed it to Cotez. He lead cotez over infront of a target and showed him how to use it, he put the saftey on for several practice shots.

"Ok i think i can try it now" Cotez said. Warren nodded and turned the safety off. Cotez looked at the target and imagined his blaster bolt hitting the target, automatically as if he was controled by another other worldy force, he raised his blaster and fired three consecutive blasts at the target, all of them hit the inner and exact center of the target.

"Well!" Warren said, "I think that we have a natural here" He patted Cotez on the back. "Do you like this weapon?"

"Umm, Yeah i do" Cotez said, he hefted the weapon up and tried a couple more shots, Warren looked on at Cotez, as the jedi entered the room, he looked at Cotez smiled and walked away, his cloak swishing in the doorway as he exited.


	5. Chapter V

Cotez awoke sharply, something had twinged at the back of his mind, he felt danger coming, he didn't know what kind of danger, but he knew that it was there. He was lying in a fairly large room, all grey awalls, quite bland. He got up and walked over to his makshift closet and put some clothes on. He walked out into the living room and went the the refresher unit, he then walked to the door and went down stairs. On the way down he say light coming out of his mothers room, wondering what it meant, he walked over to the door and peered in.

"...They found a patrol, slaughtered, a yuuzhan vong symbol littered their bodies, it was disgusting, i beleive that they are coming, we must prepare." Cotez heard Warrens voice.

"What about Cotez?" His mother asked.

"He will have to choose his own path, he would be good in the military but i will not force him to make that decision, and you cannot force him to say no either, i must leave now to prepare the troops, it will seem as if we were caught by surprise, but the battle will still be rought, be safe" Cotez heard chairs slidding back, he immediantly retreated down the hall, he witnessed Warren walk down the hall. He breathed easy, he turned to head back to his room, however when he turned around Camahl Sarat was there. The jedi.

"Spying are we?" he asked his tone was friendly yet Cotez could hear, no not hear, feel some sort of hidden intent.  
"What do you want?" Cotez asked. Camahl looked at him for a second then smiled.  
"You feel it don't you?" He asked. Cotez looked on bewilderment crossing his face. "It is ok, that feeling comes from the force, and i know that you are force sensitive"

"I dunno what you are talking about" Cotez said he walked past the jedi, who extended a hand and caught Cotez's arm.

"You must understand, there are forces in this war that would seek to destroy jedi, seek to destroy all those in connection with the force, if you refuse to believe that you are force sensitive then i cannot help you, but remember, the enemy will not stop at the chance to kill you if it arises, be careful." With that he turned around and walked away.

----------

Cotez found his way back to his room, deeply disturbed by what he had heard, _Force-Sensitive, _he turned the lights out and went under the covers, it id not take long for him to fall back to sleep. He awoke suddenly to the sound of a large explosion, he felt as if it had been five minutes, however he rolled over and looked at the clock, he had been asleep. He slowly rolled out of his bed, _Wait a minute, that explosion? _He bolted outta bed an to the window, he saw smoke rising from the gates and several vong emerging. He franticly put some clothes on and found his blaster, remembering what he had been taught by Warren, _'height is always an advantage, if you are on a higher platform than you'r enemy you will have the advantage'. _He opened the window and pered out, he saw warren walking down the center street, not walking, running towards the activation switch for the alarm, a vong noticed him and threw a thud bug, instinctively he rolled to avoid it, but several more ovng had noticed him, he ran faster, putting on a burst of speed, but the vong were moving to intercept him.

Cotez took aim at the lead vong, aiming at the neck so the vonduun crab armour would not absorb the blast, he fired, hitting the vong exactly where he needed, the vong spun around and slammed into teh ground dead, the other vong halted and looked to where Cotez was, a leader type pointed and a group started throwing thud bugs at Cotez while the rest ran towards, Warren. It was to late, Warren reached the buttong setting of the alarm in good time, that was when the fun started.

----------

Once the button was pushed a sharp wailing sound echoed through the base, lights went on and men started rushing into the streets, However that was not all of it, men that had been hidden on the rooftops suddenly sprang up and started to unload alot of fire onto teh vong, taking several down in the first 3 seconds. They were throwing down thermal detonators aswell, blowing vong apart, although the damage that they were doing was horrendous several vong kept coming, their armour absorbing most of the damage. Suddenly a second explosion rocked the camp, Cotez looked up saw that there were coralskippers strafing the sheilds, AA Batteries taking aim and firing, only for their shots to do slight damage or be swallowed by the voids, but that was not all, a massive lumbering creature emerged from the now shattered gate out of the base, it was huge, it's armour looked very thick. It was absorbing all damage sent towards it, using it as cover severl vong started to advence, and throw thud bugs up at the men on the roofs, hitting some and killing them instantly, and only wounding several others, the battle was swinging the way of the vong, when the other troops from inside the camp came running down the main street.

Cotez looked up and down the street looking for Warren and noticed that he was in the midst of the battle, three vong had cornered him against the wall and were advancing, they attacked with their Amphistaffs, thinking that he was a defenceless old man, they were wrong. He lashed out with his right hadn and grabed the head of one amphistaff, rolled himself to the ground and kicked out the feet of the warrior, using the amphistaff as leverage he deflected a second attack, and them deflected the third with his fist, Drawing a blaster from it's holster he fired twice at close range at the chest of the vong warrior, cretaing a crater in his chest. He rolled away as the warriors attacked again, he pulled his other blaster out and started letting out consecutive volleys at the vong warriors, hitting one in the leck and the other in his amphistaff arm, dropping the amphistaff, letting out a howl he charged at Warren, this was an unexpected turn of events for Warren he was barrelled into the ground, dropping both his blasters, the vong grabbed him by the neck and lifted him of the ground, Cotez immediantly let out a shot, not looking where it went and only hoping that it was heading towards the vong.

Luckily the shot found its mark in the armpit of the cong warrior, sending him spinning into the wall, dropping warren, Who rolled out of the way and grabbed his blasters, fired several shots into the back of the vong. Warren turned around and looked up into the window where Cotez was and put his thumb up, and smiled then he ran towards his fellow battleing soldiers. Cotez turned from the window, wanting to go and help, only to find his mother there.  
"Cotez, i know that i can't stop you, just...Just be careful" She said, Cotez nodded and sped out of the door. Mavis was standing there, a hand behind her back, holding a blaster, which cotez failed to notice.

----------

Verak emerged from the rubble of the entrance to the Infidel compount, to think that they abused Yuuzhan Vong technology like this, to make a hideout for themselves, he spat on the ground and the thought of it. But all was going well so his mood was not entirely soured. He walked over to the rakamat, it was fireing repeated bursts towards all the AA Batteries, taking two shots to deplete the pety sheilding and destroying them, he smiled, this battle would be won easily. He made his way through several ranks of Chazrach, he thought it was far better to keep fodder in reserve for when he needed to deplete his enemies energy faster, his plan was simple, he would send Yuuzhan Vong warriors into battle on three fronts, while that was happening he would manouvre the ranks of Chazrach into position and have them ready for a sortie for which to sweep the infidels of the streets, he would then send the Yuuzhan vong warriors in once more to clean up any infidel menace left. He turned to receive a report from his leutenant.

"Yes Veramus?" Verak said. "What information do you have for me?"

"Ground Commander Verak Sir! I have Reports that he enemy as led our initial troops into an ambush, we have lect a majority of the troops in reserve as you have asked, although we have suffered heavy casualties, in the first wave. We have reports that the infidels to teh east of the camp are falling back, if we apply pressure there we can push through with littel ease." Veramus thumped his chest with his fist, a salute of sorts to a higher in command.

"Well, i can see that the infidels are cany, but you'r information may be correct in that they are actually retreating, i would like to leave that portion of the attack for a little longer, tell the captain in that area that he is not to move forward, but fortify his positon instead. I want to see if the enemy will respond with a sortie, if that happens i want you immediantly to send the Chazrach to help the captain to push them back, once that is done i want them to consolidate their positions, my plan is to do a massive coordinated push at the same time on all the fronts so that they have no time to respond to any of them and they will be crushed" Verak said. Veramus saluted and turned around issuing orders to the individual villips in the command post. Verak turned to the rakamat and patted it's side, this will be the tool he used to defeat them, one strike at their sheilds then the coralskippers strafing the base will easily be able to pick of any infidels on the rooftops. He smiled his time was coming.

----------

The battle was not going well at all, Cotez had found Warren shortly after the start of a great vong push, he was told that he was to join a secret attack force being assembled that would attack the main vong command post, he would be given the rank of Corporal for this attack, when he asked Warren why he was given this task he simply replied 'because i need your help', Cotez couldn't say no to that so he joined up. They were to wait in a deserted building, being as stealthy as possible until the vong pushed past the building, then they would charge through and attack the command post. Cotez sat in a corner, he didn't know any of these people, he was quite nervous. The jedi walked up to him and sat down beside him.

"What do you want?" Cotez asked.  
"Am in not allowed to sit here, master Cotez?" The jedi asked, a grin crossing his face.  
"I suppose that you can sit there" Cotez replied, shifting in his spot because he was quite nervous.  
"You ahve' no need to be nervous around me" Camahl sarat said, lifted a peice of rock into the air with the force it floated to head leavel and then he silently dropped it to the ground.  
"I did not join this little attack to get closer to you Cotez, i joined so that i could defeat this attack" He looked at Cotez, who was baffeld that the jedi could sense what he was thinking.  
"How did you...?"  
"...Know that?" Camahl said. "Well the force heard what you were thinking and whispered them to me through the force."

"Get ready, command jsut said that the vong are moving through this area!" The Colonel said. Cotez turned to the colonel and nodded, then turned back to Camahl who was standing and walking over to the colonel, not even a second glance at Cotez. Cotez humphed in the corner, then stood up himself, his brand new military outfit, creeking as he stood up, he brushed any dust he could see of his vest and walked over to the colonel.

"The vong will most likely search this building as soon as they pass through this area, we will have to eliminate any resistance that we find, and then push on to teh command post, where we will, attack the rakamat that they have stationed there, it is destroying our AA batteries and limiting our effectiveness against the coralskippers straffing our sheilds, me and my demolishion crew will go in and destroy the beast, the rest of you will have to lay down cover fire while we sneak in, and a destraction if neccessary" he said, the final bit he said while nodding at the jedi. Who replied by lowering his head in acknowledgement. The time was nearly apon us when we heard a scraping of boots on the ground, all the soldiers turned around and raised their weapons. It was only Mavis.

"Mam, what are you doing here?" The colonel asked.

"I have news from General Warren, the vong are preparing for their final push into teh center of the camp, he has ordered a complete withdrawal to teh commande center, once the vong move past you, he has ordered that you move ahead with all speed, for if you mange to destroy the beast but they have been defeated, then you will all die horrible deaths inslaved to the vong, he meant the last bit in the most possible way." Mavis smiled, and looked around the group, noticing Cotez, a look of worry crossed her face and she looked away.  
"Well then, there is no way that you can go back now, grab yourself a blaster and you can join us, now men we have to move fast!" The colonel yelled as he gestured for the men to form up. That was the last hing Cotez saw as a massive explosion ripped the building apart...


	6. Chapter VI

* * *

Cotez was thrown threw the air and into the wall, or what was left of it. The wall had been reduced to slag, Cotez went flying into a still existing part of the wall, smashing threw it and into the next room. Pain filled his vision and he curled up, closing the world out, pain was all that was left. He got up, his arm was numb, but other than that the pain had seeped away from his body. He looked for any suriviors of the explosion, he instantly saw several bodies impaled on rubble, a couple more were just torn to peices by the explosion, however he saw some survivors, all struggling to rise. 

"Mum, Mum" Cotez yelled, he could not survive if his mother was dead, yet somehow he knew that she was till alive, a slight twinge on the edge of his consciousness.  
"Cotez?" Came a muffeld reply from the rubbled to the right of him. He ran over and lifted the rubble with all of his strength, but ti would not budge, he tried again and again but it did not work. Finally he gave up.  
"I will go and find some help" he said, he turned around and behind him he saw the jedi, right as rain, walking in between the rubble, checking to see if he could find survivors, this gave Cotez time to look at the destruction that was rought, he saw that there was an entire section of the wall missiong, instead it was a giant crater of melted slag, he could see out into the streets of the city, rubble had fallen down there, the street was littered with ruble.  
"Cotez, do you need some assistance" Camahl asked, this pulled cotez out of his thoughts he looked at the Marrian jedi for the real first time, he looked humanoid at a long glance, but at closer glance his skin was glassy, he had slanted ears and eyes, it gave him an aged look, but also made him look so young.  
"I guess, over here" Cotez gestured, over towards the pile of rubble that covered his mother. Cotez tried again to lift it, and looked back at Camahl who just stood there.  
"Are you going to help?" Cotez asked.

"Move out of the way" Camahl said. Cotez moved to take a swing at the jedi, but out of the corner of his eye he saw that the rubble was slowly lifting up, he looked back at the jedi and realised that he was the one doing it, his eyes were closed and his arms were raised, the rubble lifted out of the way and settled a meter away from where it originated. Camahl opened his eyes, and looked at Cotez.  
"Don't let your anger cloud your judgement" Camahl said, he turned around and walked over to the other survivors, that all began to slowly rise from the floor, coverd in dust and blood, but nontheless seemed alright. Cotez turned around and saw his mother hudled where the rubble was, she seemed to be alright.  
"Mother" Cotez said as he ran towards her, he lifted her of the ground and dusted her off.  
"Are you alright?" he asked  
"Yes... i am fine" she said, she seemed a little bit dazed but nontheless alright.  
"Men assemble, we have to get this mission underway!" Came the colonel's voice. Cotez walked over and stood next to the jedi.  
"Thankyou" Cotez said.Camahl nodded and patted Cotez on the head.

"Now, this incident has happened, but we must move on, we have to attack them now, they are surely aware that we are here, this is evidence of it, so we msut hurry and ge there as fast as possible." He shoved his gun into the air and the surviviors did the same, it was a rememberance thing, to remember the dead. He walked down the stairs to the bottom floor, everyone followed. Cotez turned to his mother and nodded, smiled then followed. They all assembeled down the bottom of the building and prepared to charge out and attack the command post.

----------

Verak saw as the plasma fired by the Rakamat fired on teh buildings nearest them, he knew that there could be any number of surprises in them so best destroy them before those surpirses could be unloaded on the Yuuzhan Vong troops, he smiled. This was going well, the enemy was in full retreat, the base was small but it was built like a city, spread over a large area. He turned to Veramus and claped him on the shoulder.

"Godo job Veramus, i want you to put aside a group of Warriors, and some Chazrach, just incase they decide to attack this command center" Verak turned around as Veramus nodded, Verak knew that this battle was far from over, the enemy still had enough troops and resources to mount an offective offensive, he just could not place why they were retreating, giving themselves less area to defend was one idea, but then they were in a fine position to defend minimal areas before, maybe they retreated so they can concentrate their fire on the warriors and Chazrach charging at them, nonetheless he had to finish this faster, he knew that they would do something but he did not know what. He flexed his arm, and uncurled his amphistaff from his arm, he also uncurled his command baton from his waist and held it in his opposite hand. He flexed his arm muscles, he needed a fight, he wanted them to attack him, he wanted to defeat them.

----------

They ran out of the building at high speeds, diving into the first cover that came up, of the fifty or so people that began the mission there were only a dozen or so remaining, Cotez himself, Camahl the jedi, Cotez's mother, the Colonel, two people remaining of the demolition squad and six normal commandos. He knew that this was a futile attack but said nothing."Are you sure that this will work?" He asked the Colonel, "I mean we have hardly any men left""Well...it is all we can do" The Colonel replied and turned his attention back to the front of the clearing waiting for a good time to move out. He raised his hand, and signaled to move forward, everyone got up and ran forward, lowering their bodies as close to the ground as they could so that they remained inconspicuous. They traveled as fast as possible, avoiding some of the normal ourcropings. They arrived at a massive outcropping near the edge of the command post, they sat there for a minute recouperating their energy.

"Now, we must attack lightning fast, Camahl will get their attention, being a jedi and all, the rest of you must protect him until we plant our explosives, ohh and you have to protect us aswell." The Colonel said, Cotez looked at his mother, who was looking at him aswell.  
"If this doesn't go well, i want you to bury me at the home, if you can" Cotez said.  
"Don't talk like that, we will be alright i promise you" She hugged Cotez then turned her attention to the Colonel, Cotez did the same. The Colonel had his hand raised slightly to symbolise waiting. Then it flew forward, Cotez rose as fast as possible and moved his blaster into the ready, as fast as he was Camahl was faster, he flew up and ignited his lightsaber in the time it took cotez to get to the other side. Cotez looked left and right, saw his mother, she was running forward with her blaster at the ready.

----------

Immediantly as they came out of cover, they fired into the units guarding the Rakamat, as the demolishion team ran through the cover, the vong reacted fast, positioning themselves infront of the Rakamat, they began throwing thud bugs, alot of thud bugs, Cotez looked to the left and saw one impack the shoulder of one of the commandos, everyone else dived for cover, _this was going to get messy fast_, Cotez thought.

----------

Verak looked to the left as he saw a vibrant blue bar, a weapon, a lightsaber come into the hands of a man twenty meters away, followed by a group of human he growled, _how had they gotten so close?._

"WE'RE UNDER ATTACK" Verak yelled, he pointed to where they were coming from and a group of warriors ran infront of the Rakamat, in a defensive position they began firing thud bugs, the _jeedai _as they had come to be known as, was harmlessly bating them aside, and charging towards the Warrior lines.

"Focus attack on the _jeedai!_" Verak yelled, the warriors began to concentrate their fire on the jedi as he began to move closer. The warriors started to advance, the jedi ran into their ranks and started to attack, he severed the arm of one of the warriors in the first exchange of attacks, he had positioned himself so that only one warrior could strike him at once, and he was dispatching that warriro with ease. Verak growled and drew his amphistaf, he walked over towards the Warriors, the ones at the back moved out of the way, he confronted the _jeedai._

The jedi looked at Verak, and grinned, Verak grinned back, a fellow warrior at heart he thought, a pity he would die. Verak settled into an offensive stance and the jedi settled into a defensive stance, he attaked once, the jedi blocked, the jedi attacked and Verak blocked. Verk smiled again, the jedi was at a point where his physical exertion was at the max, were as Verak was only just exerting himself, being fresh onto the feild he had an advantage, but he knew that in any fight you have to be aware, and not think that you will win at the start of the combat. He charged the jedi and thrusted towards his knees, the jedi flipped and landed behind Verak, he dived his blade towards Verak's legs. Verak moved out of the way and kicked the jedi in teh stomahc, sending him falling backwards several feet. Verak picked walked over to the jedi, and prepared to strike the final blow, but to the jedi the fight was not over, sumersaulting over Verak's head he lunged during flight at Verak's legs, hitting them and woundig Verak. Verak howled and sung at the jedi, who was now on the defensive, but Verak had a plan. Verak struck out at full length, pretendingto be of balance, the jedi moved in and struck out at Verak, Verak using his lightning fast reflexes that he was renowned for. He moved out of the way and kneed the jedi in the gut, then slammed his fist down on the back of his hadn, removing the lightsaber from his grip. The jedi fell to the ground, Verak came in for the final blow but again the jedi flipped out of it, he summoned his lightsaber to him and ignited it, charging at Verak, he striked out once towards Verak's head, once towards his knees and once towards his chest, Verak dodged the first, dodged the second and parried the third, putting the jedi of balance he struck out with his amphistaff, he felt teh familiar resistance of flesh as his amphistaf penetrated into the gut of the jedi, he removed his amphistaff satisfied. The body of the jedi fell to the ground. Verak looked around and noticed that the Warriors were still fighting the reemainign soldier, with a roar he charged into them, followed by Veramus and severl aother warriors.

----------

Cotez watched as what looked like the leader of the vong dispatched the Camahl easily, he dispared, _if he can defeat him so easily, what hope do the rest of us have?_ During the battle, the commandos had managed to take some vong down, but now with the vong charging them, the commandos had to many targets to attack. The commandos, threw several thermal detonators towards the commander, he easily smashed them aside with his amphistaff, they collided with another vong further behind him and exploded, vaporizing him instantly, the commander kept coming, he was roaring, he met the first commando and instantly impaled him in the chest, Cotez turned around and looked for his mother, she was preparing a sniper rifle, she was aiming at the commander. Cotez ran over to try and stop her, but it was to late, the commander had noticed the glint in the scope and was heading towards her.

----------

Verak cleved his second commando in to, he suddenly got a ray of light caught in his eye, he turned around and saw the source of the light, a scope attatched to the top of one of the infidels machinations they call weapons, he charged over to the soldier and suddenly he felt this massive force slam him in the shoulder, he spun around and hit the floor. The warriors around him halted.

"Go, Attack them" He yelled. He pushed himself up and turned to the infidel, he now saw who was weilding the weapon, a female, he would be shamed eternaly if he fell to a woman, he rose and charged at her once more, yelling in rage, he unnerved her she did not get of a second shot, he threw his amphistaff at the womand hitting her in teh shoulder and grounding it into teh ground he ran up and looked over her, this was another of many wins today, he pulled the amphistaff out."P..lea..se..." She said, blood grugling out of her throat.  
"Hmm, you will die, your blood shall be another stain of victory on my amphistaff." Verak replied, with that he shoved the amphistaff into her throat, then yanked it across, severing her head from her shoulders. He laughed, he turned and walked away, Ready to rejoin his warriors, the victory was theirs, then an explosion rocket the Rakamat, he looked as he saw infidels scrambling around the Rakamat, he growled as he realised the combat had been a distraction, he ran after the infidels, a squad of warriors forming up behind him.

----------

It took awhile for Cotez to work his way towards where his mother was, when he arrived he felt his world shattered, he looked at her decapitated body, rage filling him, he howled in anger and loss, he ran towards he and hugged her dead body, he wanted revenge, he needed revenge, he would have revenge. He stood up, her blood staining his clothes. He looked out over the battlefeild, he saw the commander and a group of his men running away, running towards the demolishon crew, he grinned, the grin was one of evil. He ran after the commander, not careing if he was noticed, he kept running. He saw the vong warriors attack the demolishion crew, they only noticed when the first of their already depleated number was cut down, the colonel. Cotez felt more anger, they slaughtered without pause he would have revenge.

A Vong warrior noticed Cotez and charged towards him, cotez barrel rolled, and smashed teh vong in the shins and then kept running, he heard the vong hit the ground, but didn't turn back to look. He reached the rear of the commanders group. He smashed one warrior in the back and fired into his exposed legs, at this close range it left a crater the size of Cotez's fist. This caught the attention of the vong, they turned aroudn with amphistaffs raised for the kill, he stepped back once, to make them think he was fearful, then he fired as fast as he could at the lead vong, hitting him several times in key areas, the other two vong attacked him and shashed the gun out of his hands, he was now defenceless, the commander walked up behind the warriors and grinned. So much anger, so much hate filled Cotez he unleashed it by extending his arms, a force unfamiliar to him spread threw his body and an other worldy force smashed the two vong infront of him away, they flew six feet then smashed into the exposed carapace of the rakamat, or what was left of it, a bone crunching smash indicated their deaths. Cotez looked at the commander.

"You Killed my mother!" Cotez yelled he looked at Camahl's lightsaber still lying on the ground, he extended his hand, the lightsaber naturaly flew to his hands. "You killed my friends" Cotez ignited the lightsaber. "You will die" Cotez charged forward.


	7. Chapter VII

Cotez charged at the commander, total anger enveloping his body, he saw, no felt the commanders amphistaff fly out and block cotez's attack. He felt the knew slam into his body, he fell to the ground, he rolled away to avoid any follow up attack and got back up, he looked at the commander his body stuttering under the impact of the vongs knee.

----------

Verak grinned, one so young to challenge him, he must be very brave. The infidel got back up, semingly ignoring the pain, that was a vong talent, he started to admire this boy all the more, although, he still had to die. He ran towards the human boy and attacked, remarkable the boy blocked every attack that Verak threw at him, He was not foolish like the other jedi, and over extending himself, he just defended. Verk paused. Then attacked again this time more ferociously, the boy just moved out of the way of most of the attacks and deflected any remotely dangerous, Verak flexed his amphistaff, and fired a shot of poison at teh boy, who rolled out of the way and it impacted the ground. Verak charged in again this time the boy rolled out of the way, Verak was so surprised that he failed to notice that the lightsaber had flung up as he rolled and conected with his armpit, severing his arm at the shoulder. The boy came out of the roll and grinned. Verak roared in pain, he pulled out his command baton and charged at the boy, full power, he smashed down on the boys head, the attack was blocked, but it bruised the boys arm severly. He then kicked him in the chest, nocking him to the ground. He ran forward to finish this of...

----------

...Cotez felt as if the world was spinning, he fle back several feet and hit the ground, the pain was unbearable, he rolled over and realised that he had dropped his lightsaber, ignoring the pain, he got up and searched for it, he heard the thumping of the commander coming towards him. Looking up he saw the massive warrior swing his command baton at him, he rolled out of the way, he felt the same power running threw him as before, he drew upon it, he enjoyed it, it washed away his pain, he stood up, he glared at the vong, he extended his arms and fliped his hands up. The force of the push, pushed the vong all the way back to the shattered doorway, a second explosion rocked the rakamat as the final load of explosives blew, shatering it apart. Cotez walked backwards, trying to avoid the explosions, that was all he remembered, a total blackness covering his vision.

----------

Verak fell and hit the ground with shuch ferocity that he felt some ribs crack, he rolled over, and got back up, he was immune to pain now, the throbbing of his shoulder was enough to focus on, his ribs could wait, he saw one villip in the doorway to the infidel base, he walked over to it, it was lying on its side, minimal damage donw to its casing, he stroked its side and it opened."Attention, this is verak, initiate a full retreat now, if you wish to die here you may, if you wish to follow me, retreat now." Verak stroked the villip again, it turned off. He stood up and walked into the tunnel that lead out of the bse, he would meet up with reinforcements and leave this world, confront his brother and exact his revenge. He turned around and saw Veramus racing after him, he turned around once more and entered the tunnel.

----------

Cotez awoke in an white room, he looked left and right, he saw other patients lying in beds similar to his. He leaned over and attempte to get up. A medical droid rolled over and pushed him back onto the bed. "You are wounded, General Warren has said that no patient is to leave this infirmary unless he says so" The droid said in a metallic tone.  
Cotez sighed. "Well go and inform him that Cotez is ready to leave" The droid acknowledged him and rolled away towards the door.  
"You don't know how lucky you were" came a voice from besides him, he looked and saw that it was the Colonel.  
"Sir what are you doing in here, i saw you die?" Cotez replied, he lept out of his bed and went and stood next to the Colonel's.  
"Well i have this to take away from the battle", he raised his arm, well what was left of it, a stump, he also lifted his opposite leg, it was also a stump.  
"Ouch!" Cotez replied."Umm how long was i out for, i mean, i just blacked out in the middle of the battle after the rakamat blew, i don't even know how i got here?"  
"Well, from what they told me, you won the battle for us, you defeated the commander in single combat, which saved us demolishionists from getting finished of, and i owe you alot of thanks, if it wasn't for you, i wouldn't have my life either." He smiled and extended his only good hand, Cotez gladly shook it, a chime sounded signaling an entry into the infirmary.

Warren entered and smiled as he noticed Cotez, he walked over and stood at the foot of his bed.

"Hello mr saviour!" Warren said and bowed clumsily to Cotez, Cotez laughed and kicked Warren playfuly with the end of his foot.

"I have spoken to my superiors, and they have allowed me to accept you into my armada, you will be formaly indoctrinated, and you will recieve training, if this war ever ends you will formaly be introduced into the military." Warren smiled at Cotez.

"Um, i don't know" Cotez replied.

"I understand, your mother, well i have something to tell you, me and her wer, involved i could say...i felt her loss as much as you did" Cotez saw a side of Warren when he said that, pain sorrow, seeped through his sheild. Tears tinged the corner of his eyes.

"I cannot cry, i will not i will show my mother that i am strong, i will make her proud" Cotez replied.

"Cotez, you are a stronger and more skilled man then most" Warren extended his hand, Cotez shook it and then Warren departed, the door swinging shut behind him as he left. Cotez sat there thinking, his mother would have wanted him to join Warren and his fight against the Vong. Cotez closed his eyes, no not closed he felt them drag closed, the world, the wait of the world on his shoulders, he fell asleep.

----------

Verak crouched low in the shrubs, he saw an infidel attack approach from the east, with his arm slashed of in his battle with the skilled infidel, he had not chance on a one on one fight with an entire squad of men, he had Veramus with him, but he did not want to risk it because, he needed to get back to the base. Once the patrol had passed he raced forward, kepping low, he met up with Veramus who was scouting ahead. They traveled along the lowlands, keeping out of the way of patrols, Verak became increasingly agrovated because of his wound. They made camp near the bottom of a cliff, this cliff was roughly one kilometer from the vong base, however, smoke could be seen on the horizon. Veramus took first watch while Verak slept, Verak was immediantly woken by Veramus, who shook him awake and immediantly put a finger to his mouth, signaling to be quite. Verak listened in an heard soft footsteps nearby, Verak tapped Veramus on the shoulder and pointed towards a crevase on the side of the cliff, they doused the fire and ran to the crevase. All was silent until a group of four infidels entered the clearing.

"We have definately got their trail" one fo them said, he seemed to be the leader, he ahd three striped on his shoulders, the others only had two "Keep a look out these vong are crafty, they may just be hiding nearby, preparing to ambush us." The group spread outand began searching all possible hiding areas around the camp. One of them came straight towards the crevase, Verak grinned, he launched himself out of the crevase and planted his hand on the soldiers head, he screamed and the other soldiers turned around, Veramus threw a thud bug at one of them and hit him in the upper shoulder dropping him to the ground. Verak continued through with his hand and shashed the soldiers head into the side of the cliff, spinning around he flung out one thud bug towards the leaders gun, smashing it out of his hands. Verak landed and grinned, slowly walking towards the leader, while Veramus disabled the last remaining soldier.

"You are a fool to have tried to challenge me" Verak said. The leader lunged at Verak with a knife-like object, Verak pivoted and smashed his remaining arm into the leaders armpit, gripping his hand, and reversing the blade onto the leaders throat."You lose!" Verak said and slit his throat with one slash, blood spattering over Veraks armour. He turned around, noticing a movement in the trees, he looked closer and noticed a glint, a glint on the barrel of an infidel weapon. Immediantly he rolled behind cover as alot of fire began pooring into the clearing, Veramus wasn't as fast and was clipped in the shoulder as he was flipping to the ground. He hit the ground hard Veramus would find it hard to get out of here, so would Verak. The blaster fire halted, Verak heard footsteps enter the clearing, He waited until they were level with him, he dived out and smashed his elbow into the knee of one of the soldiers, bringing him down to the ground fast, he then pulled him across and laid the dagger across his neck.

"Do not move!" Verak said as he stood up carrying the soldier.  
"Halt! Lower the prisoner, you have no chance of escape" One of them said.  
"You pathetic human, i have a hostage, me and my companion will be allowed to leave, or he will die!" Verak yelled in reply. He tightened his grip on teh soldier, and he began to scream, blood began trickling down from his throat, the blade beginning to dig into his exposed flesh.  
"Alright, you and your companion there may leave, just let him go!" The soldier yelled.  
"Very well then, infidel!" Verak threw the soldier at the men, knocking them over, Veramus jumped up and ran into the forest, and Verak followed closely behind. Verak listened intently for persuit, once he was satisfied that there wasn't any he slowed down and started to jog.

----------

Cotez stood in the command post, it was a multi story building, he was situated on the topmost floor, it had a holoprojector in the center of the room, and several chairs situated around it. The holoprojector displayed a fleet of vong ships in geosynchronous orbit around the planet.  
"This..." Warren pointed towards the vong fleet. "...Is the enemy fleet, it has anchored itself in orbit around the planet, we fear that it may start bombarding the planet with who knows what biomichanical matter" The holoprojection zoomed out to a view of the entire system, the five planets of the system, and the controling vong fleet orbiting the central planet.  
"This is our plan" Several green dotted lines appeared and travelled insystem towards the vong vontrolling fleet, they intersected at different intervals, and then converged on the system.

"Our plan is to have a large segment of the fleet engage the enemies and draw as many as possible out of geosyhchronous orbit, then a second segment of the fleet will jump into the system and engaged the assests still in orbit, a final force will jump into system and wedges itself inbetween teh vong fleet and our fleet, therfore creating a barricade, and we will easily capture the planet after that... Any Questions?" Warren finished talking and looked around the room, no one spoke up so he nodded and turned of the holoprojector.  
"This will be a very dangerous mission, we will need to make sure that the fleets jump into place at the right times, out first task force will be small and can and most likely will be overwhelmed by the enemy, it will have to survive long enough for the vong assests in orbit to be taken care of, then the last group will jump in and attack the vong fleet from behind, neutralizing it, any volunteers?" As teh words left Warrens mouth, Cotez stepped forward, he looked left and right and realised that everyone in the room sitting or standign had stepped forward.  
"That's what i like to see" Warren said he nodded and then smiled. "This could work"


	8. Chapter VIII

The Bioenginered wall came into view, the secret entrance, still concealed behind a slight filmy membrane, welcomed Verak and Veramus as they walked towards it. The membrane had a special communication device, it communicated with a special peice of coral implanted in Veraks brain, it was only one was so he couldn't be controleld by the membrane, when he approacehd it, it would reced and let him exit or enter the compound via the secret exit. Verak walked over to the membrane and it receded before him. He walked in and the second set of membranes receded, what he saw was not pretty.

There were vong vorpses littering the streets, Verak walked further in and then noticed a shadow decending apon him. Verak twisted out of the way and caught the figure in the back with his elbow, smashing him into the ground. Verak looked down at the man, not man but yuuzhan vong warrior.  
"Soldier stand attention to your leader!" Veramus said. The warrior looked at Verak and then at his arm.  
"Sir!" He immediantly stood up and saluted fist to chest. Verak was about to salute back but his arm was missing so he just nodded.  
"Warrior, what happened here?" Verak asked.  
"After you left with your regiment to attack the infidel base, the infidels, they seemed to attack very soon after you left, they navigated our defences and eliminated our perimeter guard easily, many of us fled to the central building to attack in force, but they have the upper hand, i do not believe that we can win this fight" The warrior saluted again and stood rigid prepared for any response. Verak patted him on the shoulder.

"Go, with Veramus and gather all the vong warriors that you can, we are leaving this planet, the infidels have scared it beyond repair" Verak turned around, he heard another salute from the soldier. He looked out at the area sorrounding his location, it was ruind, explosion marks over walls, warrior bodies in the streets, it was appalling. He turned around and signaled for Veramus and the warrior to move out, the warrior turned and gestured for Veramus to follow, Verak stood there motionless planning his next moves, no dought this would be his hardest challenge yet. He snuck around the corner, heading towards the central building.

----------

Cotez stood onboard a _lambada _class shuttle, it was to evacuate the troops needed of the planet during the battle, he was to join warren on his command cruiser when it jumped into system, he would help people be evacuated to the second fleet. He looked around the shuttle, so, he would soon be involved in a great victory, or defeat. Cotez sighed and looked towards the docking area, supplies were being loaded into saftey areas. He could also see outside into the landing area, it was filled to the brim with similar ships, freighters and fighters. Cotez was amazed at the amount of sips that were here, a great sortie of planet, people were calling it. He knew now that things like this were small in comparison to other places but he still felt that it was surprising. He turned to the captain of the shuttle, Cotez would be with him during the 'sortie', they were evacuating key materials and several key personel. Cotez beleived that to much trust was being put into him, but when he confronted Warren he simply said that this is how you learn.

Cotez walked over to the captain and sat down in the co-pilots seat.  
"So what do you think our chances are sir?" Cotez asked.  
"Humph, call me James, and i beleive that we have a high chance of victory aslong as we work together to the best of our abilities" James had been under the leadership of Warren since the start of the war with the vong. He had known Warren for five years, and during that time James had moved up to the rank of Captain, one rank under Colonel. Cotez stood up from the chair and walked into the cargo bay, the materials were almost fully loaded. Cotez sighed this wound be his first space engagement, well not really an engagement for him but, he would be in much more danger than the people on the ground. He was going to get shot at, alot. He walked back to the co-pilot seat and sat down.  
"What is our estimated time of departure?" Cotez asked. James turned to several instruments.  
"Roughly two hours" James replied. Cotez sat back and savoured this peace, for soon the battle would begin.

----------

Verak walked silently between two yorik coral huts, he could see the enemy at the end of the alleyway between the huts, he knew that was the only way that he could get to the main building. The distinct sounds of battle echoed into the valley and the infidel shifted and turned towards the main building, he caught a look of Verak in the corner of his eye and cursed, turning around he fired his blaster, Verak dived behind cover and fumbled in his pouch for a thudbug. He flipped around the corner and threw a thudbug at the soldier, this soldier was far more skilled than his counterparts, he dived away behind cover and began firing again. Verak took a shot in the shoulder, the recoil smashed his shoulder back he fliped around and landed three feet behind his previous positon. In that time the infidel called for reinforcements, Verak cursed silently and grabbed his amphistaff which was wrapped around his waist. He advanced slowly, careful of any attack made by the infidels, he burst forward as fast as lightning and flipped of a wall avoiding a blaster shot, as he came down he slashed across the chest of one of the infidels, then rolled along the ground talking out the legs of another, then he sprang up and shoved the amphistaff through the last infidels head. Letting the body fall to the ground lifeless he climbed up onto the top of one of the yorik-coral huts and jumped from one to the other towards the main building, which he could see was embroyaled in battle.

Verak crawled towards the edge of the last yorik-coral hut, looking on at the battle he saw the vong battling to the last inside the main building, it was a grand hut, or cathedral. It was built for the sole purpose of coordinating battles and housing the elite on teh planet, it was at least 14 stories tall, its spires reached into the air, at the top where plasma launchers used for shooting down enemy fighters or landing craft. Verak looked around for a place to sneak into the main building, he found a small alcove protected by a wall, he could climb over the wall into the main building, just as he was about to jump down, his pocket vibrated, he pulled out a minature villip.

"Commander Verak Sir!" Veramus's familiar voice erupted from the villip.  
"What is it Veramus?" Verak asked, he leaned back from the edge and sheltered the villip with his hand to avoid and sound escaping.  
"We have made a small strike force, we are prepared to move on your order" Verak looked over at the main building, it could not hold out much longer.  
"Very well, attack at once, i will attempt to enter the building via stealth, once i am in i will organize the defence and we can crush them from both sides" Verak nodded and silenced the villip with a stroke of his hand.

Verak pulled himself to the edge of the hut and looked out at the main building awaiting the attack. Shortly he could see a group of vong travelling on the otherside of the compund from him, they were travelling light and had an amphistaff and others had thudbugs. The troops with thudbugs came to a stop at the closest hut and climbed up the side of it, standing on the top they let out a cry and began throwing thudbugs down the the attackers, they turned around and several were hit with thudbugs, the ones that reacted in time began to fire only to be attacked by the warriors still on the ground. Several squads of infidels began running towards them from the entrance of teh compund, and more came from the sorrounding alleyways. Verak took this as his time to move, jumping from his hiding place he sprinted across the open ground as fast as he could, he reached the wall withoue being seen, he jumped up and caught the edge of the wall, then he climbed up and jumped over to the otherside, when he hit the ground he saw several infidels placing charges, he howled and charged them, cleving them apart. When he reached the last one, he stopped, the infidel was carrying a small round object, a thermal detonator as the infidels called them.

"Stay back or i will kill us both!" The infidel yelled.  
"Fool!" Came a voice from the alcove, a thudbug sliced through the air and smashed into the infidels hand, he droped the device and Verak prung forward and impaled the infidel on his amphistaff. Verak turned to look at his saviour. Veramus walked through the carnaged towards Verak and saluted, then kneeled before him.  
"Veramus" Verak said "Stand" Veramus looked at Verak with eyes wide open, commanders were not normally supposed to talk to inferiors like this.  
"Veramus, thankyou, you are my greatest leiutenant, i have decided that i will defeat my brother and claim his rank as i deserve, will you follow me, will you help me acheive my victory?"  
"I will Verak, I will" Veramus saluted and kneeled again.

"Now, we need to capture a transport for our troops, we are going to evacuate, go to the troops and tell them to retreat into teh innar sanctum, there is a private transport there for myself, it can house many warriors" Verak nodded at Veramus to leave, Veramus stood straight away and ran towards the door. He stopped then turned around and saluted again, Verak saluted aswell, then Veramus turned to leave. Verak rand after him, but did not follow him down the hall towards the entrance, but he ran towards the inner sanctum, to his private chambers. When he arrived he found his transport there un-damaged, he walked towards the organic console and put the hood over his head, he saw what the ship saw and he saw several dozen troops headng towards the entrance to the transport. Once they had entered Veramus came to the cokpit and joined Verak, Verak took of and flew throw the visual illusion that was the top of the main building, he flew towards the yuuzhan vong fleet, intent on taking what was his.

----------

Comerack stood overlooking the planet from his observation platform, this planet was insignificant compared to the amount of planets that existed in this galaxy or any galaxy for that matter, however, this planet still proved to be a great thorn in his side. He had fought of many attacks by infidel ships and raiding parties. He realised that this planet was eating up his forces very, very wuickly, he needed to end this battle as fast as possible. One of Comeracks subalterns ran up and bowed before him.  
"What is it?" Comerack asked, his tone lacking any real interest.  
"Your brother Verak has boarded the ship and is on his way here" The subaltern said, he crouched low and bowed to Comerack and returned to his station. Comerack growled, _How dare he come before me before he acheived his victory, i hear that he has failed in his battles. _Comerack grinned this was a perfect excuse to get rid of his brother once and for all. Comerack walked over to his throne cahir and sat down, it was not long before Verak appeared at the entrance with his enterage. Verak walked up to Comeracks chair and bowed before him.

"Brother i have come seeking forgivness for my loss, it was unforseeable and i have paid penance" Verak gestured to his missing arm. Comerack grinned his brother was missing an arm, he thinks that this will be his repentance, Comerack grinned. Something silent crossed Veraks face he grinned and raised to face Comerack head on. Comerack stood, Verak gestured to his enterage, they walked to the gurads in the rooms and attacked them, impaling them to the walls with their amphistaffs. Comerack growled. "What is the meaning of this!" He yelled. Verak grabbed Comerack by the throat slaming him back into his chair, then he bought is foot down on Comeracks chest kicking the wind out of him. Then Verak put his head next to Comeracks ear and whispered..  
"I am succeding you!" With that Verak drew his amphistaff and impaled Comerack to the chair, he shoved it through his chest, instantly killing him, then he ripped it up through his kneck and to through his head. Verak turned around and held the amphistaff aloft with his brothers blood.

"All those who wish to follow me bow down now, for if you do not follow me i will kill you" He wrapped the amphistaff, still stained with his brothers blood, around his waist and ripped the command baton out of Comeracks dead hands. Verak turned around and was pleased to see that everyone in the room was bowing before him. He grinned, _Excellent!_  
"Spread the word, i have succeded Comerack, i will lead this battle group to great glory, recal all ground forces, we will bombard this planet until it is a lifeless husk in space" Verak pushed aside his brothers body and sat down in the command chair, his chair now, his brother was dead, his rise to the top had just began...

----------

"Red one come in!" James called.  
"Red one here" Came the reply over the comm.  
"Run checks now, we have a five minute countdown unti lift of, it is getting pretty heavy up there." James replied, the lift offs had started thirty minutes ago, since then they had been getting fragmented reports of unusually well organized vong ship placements. four out of fice transports had been shot down, luckily there were limited personel and items on them, however their envoys were also shot down, a great loss. They were assigned red squadron, a high ranking fighter squadron under Warrens command. The fleets were due to revert any minute, they needed to run the gauntlet to get there safe.

"Red one remember, tight formation, these goods are of the utmost importance, priority 1, do not turn to engage the enemy, concentrate all fire to the front, the rear reds will defend our backsides" James was an ace landing craft pilot, he had piloted many rescue missions in this war, he knew what he was doing.  
"Understood sir!" Red one replied.  
"Grey 6, you are a go for launch!" Came the call from, the comm. Cotez buckled himself into the co-pilot chair and waited for james's signal, james nodded, and Cotez fried up the engines.

"Red one prepare for launch!" James said as he grabbed the throtel and the control stick and began to lift off. The land began to reced from view as red flight took up defensive positions around grey 6. Cotez sighed, this would be a great battle where he would be tested to his limits. He looked on as a flight of coralskippers headed their way,_ this was far too soon for them to be coming towards them _He thought, He looked at the scanner and realised that a massive portion of the fleet was moving to block the retreat.

"Command!" Cotez said into his comm.  
"Yes grey 6?" Came the reply  
"We have confirmed skippers heading towards our position and we beleive that a portion of their fleet has moved into position to halt our retreat what are your orders?" For a time there was only static then...  
"Your orders are to continue on your current course, the fleet should be there soon to cover your retreat if it isn't then you will immediantly hyperspace sump out of the system, to these coordinates, there you will await further instructions." Cotez nodded, and turned to james.  
"Are you ready?" James asked grinning, he thought that this was the best part of piloting, looking in the face of death and laughing. Red flight began firing proton torpedos at the incoming coralskippers, they exploded doing mass damage, however another wing of coralskippers was behind the first one and reinforces it, the transports guns began firing aswell, the coralskippers came within range and began firing their weapons, Red flight began manouvering around the incoming fire. A Group of coralskippers appeard on the scanners, but not infront of them behind.

"James, they are behind us!" Cotez yelled, James put the transport into evasive manouvers, one of red flight was hit and exploaded._ Not good..._


End file.
